Phil Brown, Celtic

“A TYPICAL day for a member of our supporters’ club on a day like today starts with setting your alarm for 5am. We have to meet at 5.45am, then it is a 45-minute bus trip for us to a place called Larne.

After that, it is a two-hour ferry crossing to Cairnryan – the first sailing on a Sunday service is 7.30am – then another two-hour coach journey up and into Glasgow. The difficulty for this game is that the noon kick-off means you are really pushed for time and everything is basically a sprint.

It will be the same for the Northern Irish Rangers fans – making these kick-offs is an absolute nightmare but we just need to persevere. The worst thing about it all is having to get over to Hampden, rather than Celtic Park.

The way it works over here is that if Celtic are playing at home then Celtic fans are allocated the main boat from Belfast, but if Rangers are playing at Ibrox, it goes to the Rangers fans. And it alternates if Celtic are playing Rangers in domestic cup matches. For example, in the last semi-final, Celtic fans got the boat from Belfast and Rangers fans took the Larne to Cairnryan crossing.

Today, the main ferry out of Belfast has been allocated to Northern Irish Rangers fans, and the smaller ferry from Larne for Celtic fans travelling over. It is all organised and signed off by the PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland] just to keep the peace, really

It is basically the same route back but sometimes, because we go down that coast road, we might stop off for a few pints in Girvan or somewhere like that or have a fish supper before getting the bus back.

Some buses will stop off at the Gallowgate, or maybe the Brazen Head, one of the big Celtic’ pubs in Glasgow, while others just head down the road.”